THE MIDDLE EASTERN REVOLUTIONS

OK, the last month has been INCREDIBLE in the Middle East. It has been a domino effect of revolutions since a guy named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in order to protest corruption, injustice an poverty in Tunisia. Since then, almost half of the Middle Eastern countries have faced riots, protests, and absolute revolutions. Take a look!

Mohammed Bouazizi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHw_auqod6Y from Aj-Jazerra News

Tunisia Begins to Protest - http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=BPyvrWblA0I from Al-Jazerra News

Tunisia's President Ben Ali Steps Down -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou6Oqnz4O4I of State News of Tunisia

President of Tunisia flees the country - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOlqZYrcTM from CNN

Egypt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xWiBCIxjIk from a protesters camera phone

Mubarak Says He Will Not Seek Re-Election -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsIBw199b5Q&NR=1

WATCH THIS ONE FOR SURE!!! Mubarak Steps Down Completely and People React in Tahir Square- Tahir Square is like Egypt's Tinammen Square.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqGLgjTc8UQ

Bahrain - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RCBOC-MAM from Al-Jazerra News

Iran - There are few foreign journalists in Iran and media is heavily restricted. Iran's story goes back to 1979 and last year. In 1979, the had a pro Islamic and anti American Revolution. (They didn't like America because America was supporting a dictator who was stopping them from having any freedom of religion or assembly, etc.) Since then, Iran's new leaders have become very corrupt and unpopular. Last year, they had an "election" in which the person who probably won was told that he actually lost by the Supreme Leader. Since the rest of the Middle East has risen up, Iranians have started to rise up.

This was Iran last year during the elections of 2010 -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcHT8-ps64w from the BBC

This is Iran right now - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSI8dTjB_yk

Yemen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb-lEEOAnKE&feature=relatedfrom Al-Jazzera News

Libya - There are few foreign journalists and many restrictions on media in Libya (much like China and Iran). However, we do have a speech from Qaddafi's sonhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12520586 from BBC News which got the film from the State Media of Libya

Question - Why are so many people answering questions in English?

PS - There are some early reports that Muammar Qaddafi, the dictator of Libya, has fled the country for Venezuela. Watch the news tonight to see if it's true or not.

PS 2 - Again, I know that you don't understand the gravity of the situation of this yet, but it will certainly be important for the future.

2nd Semester

Yo,

As I just mentioned, our goal for this semester is to do at least two things...



1.) Have another Mini MUN Conference. The only thing I am going to say is that this conference must pertain to the International Court of Justice or International Criminal Court。http://www.icj-cij.org/homepage/index.php



2.) Come up with some sort of community service project. The idea here is that we take our administrative and problem solving skills and create some sort of project. Here are some charities that operate in Taiwan and/or internationally. You may be able to create a project in conjunction with them. You may also create a project for something completely unrelated.

*In Taiwan...
- http://www.terracycle.net/
- http://www.taichungpaws.org/word/
- http://www.iwat.org/
- http://www.worldvision.org.tw/en/
- http://www.tzuchi.org/
- http://www.humantrafficking.org/organizations/208
- http://www.tima.org.tw/tima2009/
- http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!cfiHE3yGER759KmSvb9FXdJy5EZCE_YuDY2LKYQWoI1Bh8M-/photo?pid=15

* International
- http://www.oxfam.org/
- http://www.unicef.org/
- http://www.nspcc.org.uk/
- http://www.msf.org/
- http://www.projecthope.org/
- http://www.tuftsdaily.com/tufts-performance-of-vagina-monologues-raises-money-for-global-charity-girls-leap-1.2149843 - Vagina Monologues donates money from its' performances to rape victims in the D.R.C.
- http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/
- http://www.wwf.org/

Whatever project you create, I will expect you to fisrt ask a question such as "How can we fix...?" Then, I expect you all, as a team, to create a gameplan for solving this problem with concrete steps. Whatever your gameplan is, I encourage you to look for help from your families, classmates, fellow Mingdao students, fellow citizens of Taichung and Taichung county, fellow countrymen and women, etc. The bigger the better. Remember, MUN itself started out as a student project by some Harvard undergraduates in the 1920's. Do you think they knew that kids all across the globe would be participating in it a mere 90 years later?

You may create more than one charity project, but you may not create any more than three.



***.) Create an inter-school Model United Nations Conference. If you want to do this, we can do it! It has been mentioned by some of your classmates that we would like to set a High School MUN Conference run by you, the Mingdao students (with me helping of course).

Welcome back to school and MUN! I am hoping that we can create some practical, hands on projects that not only help you, but also help your community.

Jia you!

Mr. Gibson

Grading Rubric

1.) Is your paper formatted correctly? Does it have…
5-7 pages?
double spacing?
size 12 font, Times New Roman?
a proper Works Cited Page (more on that below)?
a proper heading?
correct grammar and punctuation?
a good flow?

35 points total

2.) Does it have a section on…

important places and buildings of the religion
how the religion began?
the main beliefs of the religion?
the main rituals of the religion?
who are its' most important leaders and people?
the history of the religion?
where people practice this religion?
How many people practice this religion?

40 points

3.) Citation: Do you have…

proper in-text citation (use the OWL for that)?
a Works Cited Page (use the OWL for that template)?

25 points